My Sister's Boyfriend

Chapter 1

Lisa My eyes snapped open in shock to the sound of a pained moan in the room next to mine. I sat up slowly and I could feel my heart pounding like a bongo drum inside my chest. I looked over to the clock that read 11:30pm and I knew that my parents were not home yet. I stared toward the room of my older sister on the other side of my wall. My heart beat even louder, painfully, when I heard a loud thumping sound followed by a weak whimper. Ice chilled my veins and I couldn’t make myself get out of the bed. I had to do something, anything. I stood up slowly and tried to force the terror back. I heard a gruff voice cursing and grunting. I moved towards my door as fast as my feet could carry me. I took one step into the hallway, heard a loud crash, and nearly jumped out of my skin. My hands were shaking furiously as I knocked on Alice’s door. The cursing stopped abruptly. The door opened and I stared into the furious eyes of my sister. Behind her, I could see her boyfriend staring at me in annoyance. “Can I help you with something?” Alice said in fierce irritation. “I couldn’t sleep,” I stammered weakly. My eyes flashed over to where Aaron stood with his arms crossed then back to my sister. I tried hard not to stare at the bruises on her arms. “I had a bad dream.” “I’ll take care of it,” Aaron murmured. My stomach dropped down all the way into my feet as Aaron came forward. I saw my sister hesitate slightly before moving aside. “Be nice,” she ordered before she kissed him lightly. “She’s only nine years old.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her and practically swallowed her whole. It took everything I had not to gag. He closed the door behind him and turned to face me with a look that froze me where I stood. He gestured for me to go into my room and I moved slowly backwards with shaky legs. He followed me in and shut the door. “Leave my sister alone,” I whispered in a voice that was barely audible to me. He laughed at me and I wanted to punch him in his big fat hat. He grabbed me by my arm and I gritted my teeth together so that I wouldn’t cry. “Don’t worry about her,” he chuckled with his fingers pressing painfully into my arm. “Don’t touch her!” I said through my teeth. I glared at him in fury, hoping that he would see how serious I was. His eyes narrowed at the vehemence in my voice and he gripped my arm tighter. I sucked in a breath and tried not to let him see how very much that hurt. He pushed me back against the wall and grabbed my chin in his other hand, pulling my face up so that I had to look into his eyes. His foul breath blew into my face and I gasped. “Keep your mouth shut!” he barked at me. At that moment, I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of him. I wanted to hurt him and I wanted to make him cry. I wanted to hit him like he hit my sister. I couldn’t for two reasons. The first reason was that his hands on my arm and face were really hurting me. If I tried to speak, I knew I would just end up crying and I didn’t want to do that in front of him. The second reason was that I was humiliatingly and terribly frightened of him. Last year, when he first started dating my older sister, I knew that there was something wrong with him. I could just tell from the way he looked at me and the way he looked at her that he was a mega creep. The first time I saw him hit her was when I was spying on them (for good reasons!) I was too afraid to try and stop him and I tried to talk to my sister about it alone. When I told her what I saw, she yelled at me and told me to never say that again. Aaron overheard me talking to her so he got me alone and told me that if I ever told anyone, things would get a lot worse for my sister. For those reasons I couldn’t say anything back to him. His hands loosened on me slowly and he finally released me. I jerked away angrily and resisted the overwhelming desire to stick out my tongue and kick him in the leg. “Good girl,” he said patting the top of my head like I was a dog.

Alice

I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the wretched pain of my throbbing body. I rubbed the bruises on my arm and tried to keep the tears in my eyes from spilling over. I stared toward Lisa’s room and shuddered, unable to hold back the tears any longer. He won’t hurt her. I struggled to relax while my breathing sped. He wouldn’t hit her. She didn’t do anything to deserve it. I did. I took a deep breath again and listened hard for any sounds of distress. I heard a soft knock on my door and my heart did back flips in my chest. Aaron opened the door with a sweet smile on his face. He stared into my worried eyes for a brief moment and then laughed. He moved towards the bed and sat down beside me, putting his arm around my shoulders. “Lisa’s okay?” I asked casually. “She’s perfectly fine,” he smiled at me and leaned in for a kiss. My breath caught in my throat when his lips met mine. He wrapped both of his arms around me and kissed me sweetly and hungrily. I tried hard to lose myself in the kiss but I couldn’t get my mind off of Lisa. His lips moved down my throat and I gasped. I pulled away carefully. “I think I should go check on Lisa,” I whispered gently. “She’s my sister.” He sighed deeply and released me. “I’ll be right back,” I said standing up quickly and heading out the door. My heart swelled with relief the second he let me go. I knocked lightly on Lisa’s door, holding my breath.

Lisa

My eyes widened in terror when I heard the knocking and I couldn’t speak. The door opened very slowly and I clutched my pillow tightly in my arms cringing away from the visitor. “Lisa,” Alice whispered. Her voice sounded weary for reasons I couldn’t understand but I was positively thrilled to see her here with me. She smiled at me but her face was still very tired. She walked over to my bed and sat down beside me without speaking. My eyes filled with tears and I began to sob. She pulled me into her arms and rubbed my shoulder soothingly. “I hate him,” I said through my shaky tears. “Get rid of him!” Her arms become rigid around me and she pushed me away gently. “Leave him alone,” she said in a hard voice. “Just stay out of it.” She stood up and headed towards the door. “Alice?” I called after her bitterly. She turned toward me jadedly. “What?” she said. “You’ve got great taste in dogs,” I said with a mocking smile. She glowered at me in wild fury before spinning on her heal and walking out the door.

Alice

After Aaron had left I fell back on my bed and pressed a pillow over my face. I struggled to ignore the leftover spidery feeling on my skin that came every time he had touched me. I fought to forget the way he made me cringe out of fear of being hit. I tried to convince myself that he wouldn’t hurt me unless I deserved it. I thought back to earlier tonight when he had hit me because I accused him of talking to another girl at school. Aaron loved me and I should have known that he would never cheat on me and he would never hit me unless he had a good reason to. He loved me and I loved him back. I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend. I took in a deep breath to calm myself. I heard the front door opening as Mom and Dad came in arguing as usual. I groaned in annoyance and pressed down on the pillow over my face, trying to drown out the sounds of their incessant fighting.